KARL SHAPIRO authored a novel, an autobiography, several books of essays, and over twenty volumes of poetry. Among his many prizes and awards, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, the Bollingen Prize, and the Shelley Memorial Prize, and he served as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (a title that was changed to American Poet Laureate in 1985) for two years. He died in 2000. ROBERT PHILLIPS of Houston, who is responsible for compiling, editing, and introducing this final book of poems by Karl Shapiro, is the author or editor of some thirty volumes of poetry, fiction, criticism, and belles lettres and publishes in numerous journals. A professor of English, he was director of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Houston from 1991 to 1996. In 1998 he was named a John and Rebecca Moore Scholar at the university.